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Monday, August 31, 2009

The inspiration quilt is here. Isn't that an absolutely incredible quilt?

I have a good excuse, though....September is my month for the Sew Connected Quilting Group. And I thought it only kind to do a test block before subjecting my fellow quilters to making blocks for me. :) I am so excited for this quilt!!!!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

My dear friend Erin's little girl is 11 months old. This was going to be her baby quilt...ahem...but given her age, I decided to make it a little larger so it will last her awhile. Works out, as it seems I am incapable of making small quilts.

The quilt is a far cry from what I envisioned in my head, but I think I like it. I was planning on having the red and aqua more checkerboard-ish, but it ended up random, so I'm going with it. It's probably better this way...less predictible.

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Here are the measurements of the blocks, if you would care to make this quilt yourself. Heather made a larger version of this quilt, too. You can see it here.

(Double click on the photos to see the measurements.)

Make 10 blocks like this.And 10 blocks like this.

Each block should measure 12.5" unfinished for a 12" finished square.

Alternate the blocks when laying out the quilt. Easy enough, right?

It requires a total of 1.5 yards of fabric.

All the fabric for this quilt came from my stash and scraps. I think I used about 18 different prints.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Here is my quilt from the Old Red Barn quilt along-finally finished. I've had a roller coaster ride with this one, as far as me liking it. I loved the fabric, then put it all together and thought about putting the top up for adoption. I had a hard time settling on a backing I liked, too. Since I quilted it, though, I love it again.

When piecing this one, I decided to press the seams on the blocks open. It took a long time, but it made the quilting easier. After making this quilt, it strengthened my dislike for strip piecing. I know it's efficient and all, but I personally don't care for the process. I think it's because I'm an excessive back stitcher.

This is one of my favorite fabrics of all time to use for binding quilts...in any color way...I love it every time.

For quilting, I branched out. Again! I owe a big thank you to Cheryl for helping me break free from my stippling rut. She has helped me get over my fear of "I'm going to ruin this quilt if I don't stipple it." She encouraged me to try to come up with a quilting design based on one of the fabrics in the quilt. This is what I came up with, inspired by this fabric. Isn't it fun(ky)? I really like it. A lot. It was a happy accident that I chose to quilt in rows, as the design of the quilt (the strips) kept me going in a fairly straight line without any marking. I love it when things work out like that.

For the backing, I used one strip of the patterned fabric down the middle and put the solid pink on each side. Much like this quilt back. All the backing came from my stash. Actually, now that I think of it, this is a 100% stash quilt. I wonder if I get extra points for that??? :)

This is a full size, measuring 72" x 90", but I'm using it on my daughter's twin size bed. I really like having the extra overhang on the sides. Now I just have to order some fabric to make a matching sham. The cutie pie doll on the bed came from Carol. :) She matches perfectly.

Can I tell you just how much fun it is to have a little girl in the house?

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Thanks for all your kind comments and encouragement since my last post. I am so thankful for your words of support. They mean so much. I feel so much better with all that off my chest.

My husband was on vacation last week, so it was a perfect time to step away from the blog. It felt great to take a break. So great. We went camping for a few nights (got that out of my system for another year-two days is all it takes!), spent some time with our families and I actually did very little quilting. My husband and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary, too. It was a good FULL week.

Now, back to business....the quilt along....it's day 23. I've got 22 blocks made. I spent some time yesterday and today trying to catch up. How are you doing on the quilt along? Still plugging away?

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Thanks so much for the kind comments on the studio and for sharing your space with me. I'm still working through the links...but I will be sure to make the rounds.

A few of you asked, "Is it always so neat and tidy?" Well, I did clean up a little bit before shooting the photos, maybe 5-10 minutes. So not a lot. I try to keep it neat because it's much more enjoyable to work in a neat space. But here's the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say...

My closet.

It's never clean. There are layers of stuff in front of other stuff. The way it's set up now, it's not user friendly at all. I wasn't going to share this photo with you, but I am, because oftentimes when blogging it's too easy to edit out the dirty details. It can create the illusion that all things are rosy. I guess I'm just trying to do a little fair and balanced reporting here.

Which brings me to my next point...blogging has been making me feel grossly inadequate. And fiercely competitive. And a little bit crazy. I've been trying to keep up with it all, but I can't. I keep pushing myself to come up with more and more fabulous stuff and it's making me tired. So very tired. So for those that ask me, how do you do it all? Don't try to do it all. It takes all the fun out of it.